Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose


Pandaria: Heart of a God

With the downfall and resurrection of Lei Shen, and the corruption of Ra-den into a force of Death, Sunset departed from the Throne of Thunder with more soldiers to add to her growing army, where she found that her forces had been busy tearing down the forces that had been situated around the Isle of Thunder. Sunset was pleased with the discovery, as her forces were swelling with every race and force of soldiers she came across, to the point where she knew that the Alliance and the Horde were afraid of her, in fact they didn't dare to challenge her terrible might. One of the lieutenants approached her for a few seconds, saluted, and informed her that there was another small isle nearby, according to the pandaren it was the Isle of Giants, large dinosaurs to be exact, which they were in the middle of subjugating right now, adding more imposing beasts to her army. She nodded her head as she dismissed the night elf, allowing her to return to her duties, as all of Pandaria, save for the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, belonged to her now and, once she had what she was searching for, she would return to conquering the rest of Azeroth.

With all of that in mind her forces started to pour back into Kun-Lai Summit, using portals to teleport back to the province in question, while she made her way into the Vale without delay and discovered more risen soldiers patrolling both the entrance and the rest of the province, allowing her to track down Taylor with ease.

"Admiral Taylor, it seems like you've made good progress." Sunset remarked, as she found a large dig site resting near the powerful pool of energy she had discovered earlier, as Taylor's dig team had been busy tearing into the ground, following the instructions of the shamans and void priests that were nearby, who likely figured out where the prison rested, "How long until you find the prison?"

"According to the others, soon... a few minutes, to be exact." Taylor replied, because he knew that whenever the Alliance or the Horde built new bases it usually took days, if not weeks depending on the circumstances, to complete whatever either force was working on, so it was very impressive for them to make this much progress in a short period of time.

"Good. The sooner we find that prison, the sooner we can leave Pandaria." Sunset said, though as she said that she found that the shamans were carefully manipulating the tunnel that had been dug into the ground, forming a path for her to use when her target was discovered, even though some were helping the void priests.

Fortunately Sunset didn't have to wait too long as she heard an explosion underground, followed by the workers stopping as a group of goblins came out, stopping in front of her and kneeling before informing her that they had been successful, they had tunneled into an ancient Titan structure. Sunset smiled as she told the soldiers that they had done good, allowing them to pull out and form ranks once more as they waited for her to give them their next orders, so for now she left most of her forces to guard the Vale, while she walked into the tunnel. Sure enough she found that it brought her to a Titan structure that was cubed in nature, split into two levels with hers being higher than the lower one to her right, but what interested her was that there was a large Titan watcher that resembled the Mogu, who activated upon her arrival. The only other thing she noticed was that there happened to be a large metallic door behind the figure, though Sunset smiled as she felt two things behind it, the presence of the final Prime Sha and, more importantly, Y'Shaarj's heart.

"Halt, intruder. No one is allowed inside the Heart Chamber." the Watcher stated, informing her that she was seen as an intruder and not as someone who could be granted access to what was resting behind him, as Sunset determined that the figure was male based on the voice she heard.

"No one tells me what to do." Sunset replied in kind, where she gathered some of her magic into her left hand and swung it for a moment, gripping the Watcher and pinning him to the wall on her left, much to his surprise since he was likely thinking he might end up fighting her in some manner, before she raised her right hand and forced the large door to open, keeping it in one piece to avoid damaging her targets.

"Prideful arrogant fool! You know not what you are about to unleash!" the Watcher exclaimed, confirming that the heart of Y'Shaarj was contained in the chamber she was opening the door to right now, not that Sunset needed confirmation since she could feel the heartbeat, especially with the other Prime Sha being a little more active than normal, meaning they knew what was coming up in the near future.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing." Sunset stated, taking a moment to hurl Frostmourne into the Watcher's chest, allowing her to kill him and then raise him into undeath without really looking at him, before the door opened and revealed a second cube shaped chamber to her, along with a large metallic cube suspended in the air.

Sunset chuckled for a moment as she let her power roll over the chamber, finding a number of light blue chains linked to the prison cube in question, which shattered under the weight of her power as she undid the seals on the device, where it broke apart before her eyes and revealed a massive dark purple heart that radiated dark energy. She smiled for a moment as she laid eyes on the Heart of Y'Shaarj, the Old God who had been slain by Aman'thul, one of the Titans who did all sorts of things to Azeroth when he and the others came, such as ordering the world and sealing the Old Gods in prisons to allow the planet to survive. As she cleared out the chamber, allowing the heart to float over to where she was standing, she felt a surge of energy in the area and watched as it congregated right where the cube had been resting, forming the last of the Prime Sha, where she found that Pride was an eerie blue creature, as opposed to the black color she was used to, even if the Sha of Fear had been different as well. The two stared at each other for a few moments before the Sha of Pride simply surged into her, allowing her to absorb the last of the seven Sha, symbolized by the arrival of the seventh crystal around the empty heart area, though with that done Sunset turned and walked outside, levitating the heart behind her, where all of her forces knelt as she moved to fulfill her dark purpose.

As she walked the mages weaved their magic together and formed an icy bridge for her to use to reach the magical well, her main target right now, though as she did that the wind whipped up for a moment as Taran Zhu, a living version that had to be from another timeline, appeared in front of her.

"Enough! You have run rampant for far too long, Sunset." Alternate Zhu stated, though as he said that the Taran Zhu from this timeline started to step up and Sunset held a hand out, stopping him from interfering, because it seemed like she was going to get a bit of exercise before completing her dark task, "But that ends now."

"Fool, you confront a force beyond reckoning... no one in this world can stop my dark crusade." Sunset replied, which was the truth, this world, with all of it's heroes and villains, had failed to stop her after the Light cheated and forced her to be imprisoned in Dalaran for some time, even though she had a hand on Frostmourne, knowing that this pandaren would no doubt make an attempt to stop her, despite the odds being stacked against him.

"You once dabbled in 'forces beyond reckoning'... what happened to you when you did that?" Alternate Zhu said, though in that moment Sunset paused, as there was no way he and his allies could have known about her trying to use the Element of Magic to become all powerful so she could conquer Equus, and yet, despite that fact, he clearly knew about it, in fact he was using it to provoke her.

Sunset sighed as she surrounded the Heart of Y'Shaarj with her magic before drawing Frostmourne, where she rushed up to where her foolish foe was standing and swung at him, the force of her blow being stopped by his mace head, which had been designed to counter bladed weapons. It was clear that he was trying to break her weapon, to cripple her power and free the souls trapped inside Frostmourne, which was laughable since her runeblade was one of the strongest weapons in the entire world, as the Light must have cheated to break Arthas' during his battle with the heroes. When he found that his plan was impossible to complete, given the nature of her weapon, he tried to force it out of her hand, to force her to just punch him with her fists, though she yanked her runeblade back and spun around so the edge of her tail collided with her foe's chest. Such a blow knocked him off the frozen bridge, even though he seemed to meditate in the middle of battle, to allow himself to walk on water to be exact, so he could burst through the air and throw his fist at her face, though she just dodged the attack and let him land nearby, between her and the heart.

In that moment, as if sensing that he was fighting a battle he would never win, Alternate Zhu turned on the heart, though before he could do anything she yanked him backwards with her dark lasso and stabbed his chest with Frostmourne, but this time she avoided his heart, to let him see the fruits of her labor before raising him.

"It's funny, you pandaren tried to bury your hate and anger, and yet here you are, blinded by anger towards me and what I've done to this vast land." Sunset remarked, as she could tell that the alternate Taran Zhu was just like the version from this world, he was ruled by his hatred towards outsiders and the anger he felt when he saw what they did to his home, or what she had done to everything so far, before she forced him off Frostmourne as she sheathed it and floated the heart over to her position, complete with a black claw that was provided by the bronze dragons, the Claw of N'Zoth, "This power cannot be contained, rather it must be unleashed upon Azeroth!"

"A time will come... when you will answer for your vast crimes!" Alternate Zhu stated, informing her that he believed that, in the end, someone would come and beat her, to make her bend her knee and make her pay for everything she'd done to the various timelines, causing her to chuckle for a few seconds as she extracted the Eye of C'Thun and the Fangs of Yogg-Saron, while the seven Sha turned into small motes that swirled around the large heart.

"I answer... to no one!" Sunset exclaimed, where she stepped into the opening above the well for a moment as her power caused the four fragments to transform into spheres of energy, before she and the essences of the Old Gods surged into the water below them.

For a moment the Scourge watched as nothing happened, save for a dark bubble forming at the top of the well, before a thick column of dark energy, the black and white of the Sha mixed with the icy blue power of Death, burst out of it and struck the air that was far above the Vale. As that happened the very land itself became corrupted by the power of Death, because a wave of dark energy washed over everything, similar to what happened when a Prime Sha was released from their prison, before they noticed that the water surrounding the well had dried up, meaning it had been sucked away by Sunset and what she was doing. In the center of the pillar of dark energy they found their ruler, emerging after completing her dark task, where they found that she now looked a dragon crossed with a humanoid, as her body was covered in eerie blue scales while the spikes attached to her arms, legs, tail, spine, and wings were black with eerie white energy coming off of them. In addition to that her body had bulked up a little more, becoming more like what a dragon would have if any of them took a form like this, and her face had pushed out into a terrifying dragon visage, while the Helm of Domination had altered itself to fit her form once more.

For a few seconds nothing happened as Sunset stood there, going over the changes to her body, before she spread her wings and roared in triumph, as the Dragon of Death and Domination was now complete, though as that happened reality shook as a series of purple cracks appeared nearby, breaking open to reveal a school she recognized.

"Soldiers, get ready. We have two new targets to attack." Sunset ordered, where she found that her forces wasted no time in spreading out, some returning to their airships while others were regrouping with their units as they waited for the way to be opened so they could invade the areas she wanted to attack next.

The remaining living of Azeroth could wait, as they weren't a threat to her anymore, because she was going to turn all of her focus on the Mirror World, to pay back those that caused her to be sent to Azeroth in the first place, and then she was going to complete her original plan and conquer all of Equus, causing her to grin as she prepared herself for what was going to happen once everyone was ready to go.